Artral Media’s China Syndrome

Sixty messages were created for Digital Natives, a public artwork sited on the electronic billboard at Burrard Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver. Three have been omitted by the corporation that is under contract to manage the billboard’s content, Astral Media Outdoor. Omitted messages are presented here, in solidarity with artist Edgar Heap of Birds and writer Larissa Lai. Other Sights for Artists’ Projectsis dismayed at the exclusion of work by such respected artists.

Curators Clint Burnham and Lorna Brown state, “Our goals for the project are to use this highly visible location to present a conversation between First Nations and non-First Nations contributors and the public – happening on twitter, on our website, and on the billboard itself, as tweets from the public will be introduced in mid-April. In this anniversary year, we are drawing attention to the messages and languages we usually see in public space, and those we do not. We are disappointed that Astral has refused to broadcast artworks by such renowned artists. Their decision compromises the intent of the project and does a disservice to the artists, whose viewpoints about public space are highly valued.

“Unfortunately,” they add, “Astral’s censoring of artists and writers shows how difficult it is for Canadians to gain access to public space, and to express themselves in public space. This is an issue of censorship, of the suppression of artistic expression, clear and simple.”